Toadfish Tales from Costa Rica
Now one of favourite fish, and call me strange if you will because of this, is the ToadFish. I have very strong reasoning behind this so hear me out. Firstly, they are in all truths pretty bloody hard to find. After spending a couple of years diving in thecarribean and listening to them "singing" I managed to find them only on 2 occasions.
New Scuba Jedi for Scuba Diving in Canada
Welcome to the Scuba Diving in Canada and the PADI System Scuba Jedi. My name is Darrell O’Donnell. I’m an Assistant Instructor with PADI and I’ve been a certified diver for 10 glorious years. I live up here in the Great White North of Canada and I know a lot of warm water divers must think, “How does someone who lives 820km (510 miles) from the nearest coast and whose lakes are frozen for 6 months of the year get out diving?” Well have any of you out there ever considered Ice Diving? It’s a blast and something that very few people will ever try. A warm dive for me is somewhere in the 45-50F surface temperature. I dive in a lot of lakes with visibility that most of you ocean junkies would never even consider good conditions. Most days, when the visibility is 25 feet, it was a great [...]
Categories: Scuba diving destinations, Scuba Diving in Canada Tags: habakkuk wreck, project habakkuk, scuba canada
Hitler Dives with SSI… and he is not an AOW
Is not easy to be The Fuhre, specially when you want to go diving and you are just an open water diver. So the big question is: Should dive operators alowed Hitler to dive without his Advanced Open water certification? Enjoy!
Categories: Scuba diving courses Tags: Dive Hitler, scuba Hitler, The Fuhrer
Drysuit or BC for Buoyancy? BC of course!
When using a drysuit divers will need to add air to their suit on descent to avoid the accompanying, potentially painful, squeeze that is explained by Boyle’s law and the associated increase in pressure. Since drysuits themselves provide little or no thermal protection, insulating underwear is required to prevent hypothermia. This underwear needs a certain amount of loft to be effective. So, as well as adding air to avoid squeeze, divers must also add air on descent to maintain loft and remain warm. All the air added should be there solely to equalize the compression that occurs with increased depth – the diver is equalizing the airspace inside the suit in order to remain comfortable and warm. Additional adjustments may be required for buoyancy control and these should be made by adding air to or subtracting air from… the Buoyancy Control Device (whether that is a traditional BCD or a [...]
Categories: Drysuit diving Tags: buoyancy, drysuit, Drysuit diving, underwater buoyancy
PADI IDC: Choosing the Best PADI Course Director
As technology and dive business has advanced, so has diving instruction. Just as there are many choices of Regulators, BCD’s, computers, and dive trip options, there are just as many choices of instructors. There are also a lot of Course Directors out there these days. As with Instructors in any field, there are some good and some that are not so good. However, just like there are certain things you want to know before choosing your doctor, there are certain items you should inquire of your Course Director. Accreditation and Experience – Does your Course Director have the education and experience to train you proper. Just like in the Dive master course, a big part of the IDC is for the CD to share his/ her experience. If somebody does not have that, then it comes down to “teach you to pass the IE”. Also remember that if the CD [...]
Categories: PADI, Scuba Careers Tags: PADI Career, PADI Course Director, PADI IDC
Whales, Dodging Those Deadly Harpoons!
Whales, Dodging Those Deadly Harpoons! The title for this month’s conservation article was inspired by a line from a Jimmy Buffett tune, Treat Her Like A Lady, about respecting the ocean. Whales worldwide will head for the deep, like this diving Tonga humpback, as they attempt to evade Japanese, Icelandic, and Norwegian harpoons over the coming months. Whales, already endangered from years of ruthless hunting, are facing new threats to their very existence on our planet. Japan, Norway and Iceland currently lead efforts to subvert, and ultimately overturn, the International Whaling Commission’s commercial whaling ban. All species, including humpback, fin, and minke, are slated for attack by Japan, Iceland, Norway, and several other whaling countries. Strangely, even blue whale meat, identified by DNA analysis, appears in Japanese meat markets, despite Japanese denials that their “scientific” whaling program targets severely threatened blue whales. Attempting to overturn the IWC ban on commercial [...]
Categories: Conservation, Marine Biology Tags: International Whaling Commission, scientific whaling, whales, whaling
The biggest threat to coral reefs: Prices on Underwater cameras.
It’s been said that every photo taken of you shortens your life with one day. I’m not sure that this is intierly true since people like Brittney Speers is still around. However, Anna Nicole Smith might be of a different opinion. I am sure though, that this is true for the coral reefs in tourist dense areas. Divers have become the new “Japanese”… The last few years the prices for under water housings for cameras has dropped like a dumped weight belt at the same time as digital cameras has become everyone’s toy. I’m not sure if this is a blessing or a curse. All of the sudden the majority of divers coming to dive the Red Sea carry a digital camera with an under water housing. Some small pocket cameras some big semi-pro cameras and most of them first time users that bought their photo equipment just before leaving [...]
Categories: Underwater Photography Tags: prices of underwater cameras, underwater cameras, Underwater Photography
